I will probably get it when I finish the rest of this round of library audios. I'm currently listening to Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant, which seems to be a tangentially Arthurian literary fantasy with lots of play on memory. Actually, one of the things that has impressed me so far is the way the author has blended the characters' old memories (or lack thereof) with their new (recovering?) memories. It's something that never quite gelled for me in DWJ's Fire and Hemlock.

After that, I have the BBC Radio production of The Jungle Book and Stephanie Garber's Caraval. The latter is one I've seen a lot on Goodreads, but haven't really looked into the plot. We'll see how it turns out.

I'm currently reading through the Tad Williams trilogy I mentioned a page or two back in anticipation of the sequel coming out in June. I'm enjoying it quite well. The beginning is slow but intriguing, even though I know how everything ends. It's like taking a long walk with an old friend. I'm about 1/3 of the way into book 1, so I may not reach the end of this reread before the new book arrives (especially since I also have Thick as Thieves on preorder and I might just have to squeeze a Queen's Thief reread in as well).

How have you liked The Buried Giant, stwin? And have you listened to The Jungle Book or Caraval yet?
I should do an Attolian series reread too, but it's not happening yet.

I've got something like 50 pages left in A Man Called Intrepid. It's good, but I've been reading it for almost a month, so I'm ready to finish it up. I did finish my reread of Antigone; I'd forgotten some of the plot, but I remembered more or less how things resolved for the titular character.

I'm not sure what I'll read next: on one hand, I'm thinking something quick and light (probably both of my remaining library books would fit that). On the other, Words of Radiance is off my shelf and calling my name. Plus there's that overflowing shelf of rereads to see if I want to keep them, not to mention the Attolian series, my sister has lent me a couple of Wodehouse books, and I've also been hit by a desire to reread Beauty (thanks, fk ) and The Perilous Gard. And so on and so forth... XD

Not to mention there's a library booksale this week I'm going to try to go to. (I took a big box of books to the library to donate a couple of weeks ago! That was my goal so I can go buy more books with...only moderate guilt. )

Oh, fun, SA! I didn't know the Susannah books were a series. I hope you like it; please let me know what you think! I hope your sisters liked it too.
Sorry to hear that The Returning isn't holding your attention; I would probably skim too.

I thoroughly enjoyed Susannah of the Yukon. It was a delightful change of pace and genre from what I had been reading. Unfortunately the library doesn't have the rest of the series.

I barely made it through The Returning and it be honest I basically skimmed the final third of the book. It was so boring and the plot was confusing. I won't be reading that series again.

I'm currently reading the Nikki Boyd Files by Lisa Harris, I am on the third book (Pursued).

I am 90 some pages into Death By Living, I had started and stopped so much on the first couple of chapters that I decided to go back to the beginning and try again. I am really enjoying it. So glad you recommended it to me, VA.

Oh, that reminds I should probably go through my books...I have been delaying choosing which books to part with because the used bookstore downtown wasn't accepting trade-ins. But now they are and someday Dad will want to go to the bookstore and I won't have my books ready. I am not really sure I want my parents to see how many books I have that I don't need to keep.

SnowAngel

How have you liked The Buried Giant, stwin? And have you listened to The Jungle Book or Caraval yet?
I should do an Attolian series reread too, but it's not happening yet.

I finished The Buried Giant and The Dragonbone Chair. TBG was not as good as I'd hoped. It was kind of melancholy and had no real heroism. It did do a good job of examining PTSD and it handled the layers of discordant memories better than DWJ's Fire and Hemlock. Still, I was disappointed overall.

TDC was just as good as I remembered. I had to make myself pick up the next Robert C. O'Brien book to review for my blog instead of diving into Stone of Farewell.

I have no idea where an Attolia reread will fit in.

I started Caraval and it's decent so far. I'm having a little trouble with it because it's narrated by the same reader who performed the Lunar Chronicles, so the voices are often the same/similar and that is compounded by both having a main character named Scarlet. (I've had the voice confusion before when listening to Stephen Fry's reading of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy after listening to him read the Harry Potter books. I was very confused as to why the Weasley twins were zipping around space. )

I'm not sure what I'll read next: on one hand, I'm thinking something quick and light (probably both of my remaining library books would fit that). On the other, Words of Radiance is off my shelf and calling my name. Plus there's that overflowing shelf of rereads to see if I want to keep them, not to mention the Attolian series, my sister has lent me a couple of Wodehouse books, and I've also been hit by a desire to reread Beauty (thanks, fk ) and The Perilous Gard. And so on and so forth... XD

Not to mention there's a library booksale this week I'm going to try to go to. (I took a big box of books to the library to donate a couple of weeks ago! That was my goal so I can go buy more books with...only moderate guilt. )

I still need to dive into The Way of Kings myself. Maybe if I ever get through all the epic fantasy already on my read/reread shelf. Oooh! I should reread Beauty too! (And read the other McKinley books on my shelf.)

Enjoy the book sale! I actually skipped our last one. I've been keeping myself to the policy of read a book to buy a book, and I have had to save my book purchases for McKay's visits.

SnowAngel, I feel your pain with sorting through books. My wife's accepted that I will always have an abundance of books, but she's happy when I can whittle them down a bit.

I'm glad you enjoyed Susannah of the Yukon, SA! Sadly, I haven't had any success tracking down any of the other books in the series either.
Glad you made it through The Returning (more or less ). How are you liking the Nikki Boyd Files?
I'm glad you're enjoying Death by Living! And you're welcome. Though I should take my own advice and actually read it too.
Haha! Yes, letting your parents see how many books you own, and how many books you own you really don't want/need can be a bit nerve-wracking. Both my parents are bibliophiles, though my mom is much better at clearing out books than my dad; still, my dad has been unimpressed at how many books are still in my room after moving two bookshelves worth out. I didn't show him how many I bought at the booksale either...

Too bad about TBG, stwin. Glad you enjoyed your TDC reread, though, and that Caraval has been good enough so far.
Ahaha, yes... XD I don't even have a shelf for re-reads I know I want to keep. Oooh, I like your idea of reading a book to buy a book! I did like the booksale; more on that in a minute.

I finally finished A Man Called Intrepid! It was really good, though the ending caught me a bit off-guard. Lots of fascinating information in the book...
I also ended up reading G.K. Chesterton's Daylight and Nightmare over the weekend; it's a collection of mini-stories. Most of them are a page or two in length, though a few are shorter and a few more longer. It was interesting, but overall I rather enjoyed it.

Still not sure what to read next, though. I pulled a book off my to-reread-and-get-rid-of-as-needed shelf before the booksale, but I put it back after coming back with a big box of books (...no comment). I also got asked today by one of the ladies at church if I'd read the Sayers books I'd gotten for Christmas yet. And so on and so forth.

I got something like 26 books at the booksale for less than ten dollars. Most of them were children's books, but I also got a copy of The Unfinished Tales by Tolkien, a book about women of the western US, a biography of Eric Liddell, and a book about evening gowns by an art museum. Selections of the childrens books include a book about Tolkien (...so YA falls under childrens books at the sale and apparently this counted as YA), a Zilpha Keatley Snyder (The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case - I'm still hoping to find another book of hers I like as well as The Velvet Room), a copy of Blue Willow by Doris Gates (this will go to someone else), and a couple of books in The Young Underground series by Robert Elmer (Danish resistance in WWII through the eyes of set of pre-teen twins). I got several books to give to other people and probably most of the books will get read and either given away or donated back, but for the price...

BUT. Funny story about the Elmer books. We had gotten copies of them from another library booksale (ex-libra) when we were younger and loved them. Different sisters got different books from the series, so no one is really sure who owns which. But I dove for them when I found them at the booksale and, lo and behold, they were ex-libra from the same library booksale we would've gotten them from years back. One of my sisters had to cull a lot of her books this past year, so I figured she had culled these. But I was texting her earlier and she said she thought she still had the entire series. I pulled the books out to double-check that they were ex-libra and flipped open the front page - our name is in them. BOTH OF THEM. o_O So. Either another sister accidentally got rid of them, the first sister's husband culled them and she didn't catch it (...this is what I think happened, but she still needs to check if she has hers), or somehow we lent them out and they never came back? I'm not sure, and it's a bit compounded by the possibility we had duplicates of some of the books. But it's weird.

I finished up Caraval and the BBC Radio Jungle Book.

Caraval was good, but not what I was expecting. The character confusion wasn't helped by the introduction of a person named Iko (there's also a character by that name in the Lunar Chronicles), and the novel as a whole took on a far more romantic tone than I expected. Once I resigned myself to this, I was able to enjoy the book for what it was. (I'd been looking for adventure and clever puzzles in a game of life and death, but these elements were either not present or were presented in such a way that they weren't as thrilling as I'd hoped.) I'm not sure how much of my disappointment/disconnect was due to the narration and how much due to the book itself. There's a sequel in the works focusing on one of the side characters that I'll probably read at some point to see where the story goes.

The Jungle Book was excellent. It adapts all the Mowgli stories from both of Kipling's Jungle Books, in the order Kipling arranged them (which means Shere Khan is only there for about half the production). It was great seeing all of the stories represented, especially "The King's Ankus" which is often neglected in Jungle Book adaptations. Eartha Kitt voiced Kaa and she was definitely the standout among the cast. The incidental music was a bit shaky because it varied from scene setting and transition to overuse at times. The recorders in the orchestra were often perfect but sometimes veered toward annoying. One fun thing they did with Mowgli's actor was have him use a British accent for his animal speech and an Indian accent for his human speech. If you can track down a copy of this drama, give it a listen.

Currently I am rereading The Thief (though I doubt I'll make it through the series before Thick as Thieves releases) and Stone of Farewell, the second book in Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. I'm between audio books and can't decide whether to pick up my Wheel of Time reread with book 5 (Fires of Heaven) where I left off a while back or to see what the library has.

Huh, stwin. Thanks for your thoughts on Caraval; sorry to hear it wasn't what you were expecting.
Good luck on the Attolian reread! I should start that, but am also unsure about when I will get a chance to read the new book...

I read The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case; it was okay and had some funny parts, but was nowhere near the level of The Velvet Room.

I just finished a reread of The Westing Game by Ellen Ruskin since I just saw a play based off the book. It was quite interesting to compare the two, especially since I think I like the play more. Part of this is natural bias at seeing the characters interpreted by people I knew, but part of it was that some of the elements I disliked about the book (at least this time around) were removed

I also read Sense and Sensibility for the first time. I'm a little iffy about it. On one hand, it had a lot of funny things and good bits. On the other, there are things that the '95 adaptation interpreted vastly differently - and I like the '95 adaptation's interpretation better. Also,

Has anyone read 'The Gunslinger : Dark Tower Book 1' ? I've been loosely interested for years, saw the trailer for the upcoming movie and my husband informed me we have book one. I had no idea lol.
Anyways, I know it's a big ol' long series, and I was wondering if I can read the first book as a stand alone? Or do I have to read the whole series for the story?

I've read The Gunslinger twice (on audiobook). (Actually I reread it because I wanted to read the rest of the series due to the movie sparking my interest anew as well.) I didn't care for it as much as some of King's other novels (partly because of the sexual content and partly because it's a little disjointed due to being a series of short stories cobbled together).

The answers to your other questions are simple but complicated.

Yes, you could read The Gunslinger as a standalone. BUT, the first book hardly gets the larger story going, so you'll probably want to go further (assuming you care to after reading book 1; it took me 3 years to decide I wanted to read more now rather than later).

As far as the movie goes, it's actually

Hope that helps!

I've just finished reading all I could find of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, a potboiler account of Scotland from before Culloden (1745) to about 1779. I can see how Culloden and an exodus of Scots migrants might impact on whatever was happening in what used to be the American colonies, and, so far, I've enjoyed reading about this pre-1788 era. However, I've found quite a few bits of it heavy-going. Has anyone read any of the Outlander books though? They include Outlander (Cross Stitch), Dragonfly in amber, Voyager, Drums in autumn, The fiery cross, A breath of snow and ashes, An echo in the bone and Written in my own heart's blood.

Of course historical fiction isn't really history, and is often much more enjoyable. If anyone writes a history book it is necessary to not only back up one's sources for the facts about people, what they did and said, plus the events and social conditions in which they took part and in which they did not. It is also necessary to quote sources for interpretations as well, and argue from the author's reading why some interpretations are more acceptable to that author than others.

Whereas with historical fiction, it is mainly facts, real people, social conditions and events that need the verification, and the author gets a little more leeway with his/her interpretations and theories, especially when it is through the eyes of fictitious characters in the story. However, I still found myself getting bogged down in this series with what seemed like too much information and personal details, which I would find far too intrusive, even whilst acknowledging the reality of such matters. The main protagonist is a somewhat awesome Mary Sue of a character, going through a whole lot of incredible dramas that I wouldn't have dreamed possible. And I quite take Claire's point that "prediction is easy if one has seen it all before".

Medical expertise and knowledge of plants etc would be a wonderful attribute at a time when most medical marvels still awaited discovery, I do agree. And I also agree that simple cleanliness and practical commonsense does go a long way. Even so, and with the time-travelling involved, I thought the concept was a bit far-fetched even for a novel or a series of novels of that era.

Women at that time, generally speaking, weren't always encouraged to be educated or to be too clever, otherwise being considered to be a witch was all too likely. A century later, Dr James Barry, the first woman to get a degree in medicine and to practise as a doctor had to live as a man until her dying day. Also, I'm not too impressed that Captain James Cook's discovery about how to defeat scurvy whilst circumnavigating the world the first time, was not even mentioned, though it took place in 1770. And when a reference to eucalyptus oil was made, I wondered how that would have been possible before 1788 at the very earliest.

Unfortunately, I've not learned much about the American Revolution before, despite ongoing TV coverage, so am quite at sea about which land battle is which, and which were the most important. That doesn't mean the Revolution, itself, wasn't an important world-shattering event, which ushered in Modern History. There were three momentous outcomes of the American Revolution - firstly the division of much of North America into Canada and USA. Secondly, the settlement of Australia in 1788, in compensation for Great Britain's social ills in the wake of the Revolution, and thirdly, and not leastly, the French Revolution, eighteen months later.

I did know that Bonnie Prince Charlie, the loser at Culloden, died at the end of January 1788, less than a week after Governor Phillip proclaimed Australia's first settlement at Sydney, and that it was the French rivalry with Great Britain on account of both Bonnie Prince Charlie and the American Revolution which brought it to bankruptcy and subsequent events of 14th July 1789. And that much of settlement in Australia, in particular, was meant to stave off French rivalry and exploration which continued, despite the French Revolution and Napoleon 1, for some time to come.

So, who all has started reading Thick as Thieves? I may or may not have finished it at 4am this morning.

Spoiler

At first I was a bit surprised at Kamet being the narrator, but I started liking him fairly quickly. And once I figured out the Attolian soldier sent to steal him from Nahuseresh (I probably botched that spelling) was Costis I was hooked. I'm not sure which part was my favorite, but the bit where Kamet is trying to leave the harbor while Costis is away, but he keeps getting lost and winding up back at the ship as though the gods themselves wanted him to stay on the ship was great. And everything with Eugenides was perfection as usual. And I loved the ending. Now it's back to waiting 5-10 years for the next book. Although I'm kind of hoping for a short story about Sophos' sisters and their adventures during Conspiracy of Kings in the meantime. It probably won't happen, but one can dream right?

I haven't read my copy yet (aside from the maps and the first page) because I want to finish rereading the series first. (Or at least Queen and King.) I didn't get started on that nearly soon enough.

I'm glad it was good! Gives me even more anticipation for my own reading.

Dot. I don't have a copy of Thick as Thieves yet; my mom may or may not have ordered one, so there may or may not be one arriving at some point. To be honest, I haven't been proactive about looking for a copy at all yet... Can you say, without spoilers ), if it has a similar feel to any of the earlier books or if it has an entirely new feel (I mean, they're all different, but, say...is it more like KoA or ACoK?)? I remember MWT saying

I recently read They Also Served by Olga Gruhitz-Hoyt, which was about women serving in/alongside the military in WWII. It was a compilation of a lot of short accounts by the women in the various branches and was rather interesting, if only an overview. I may have to go back to the uni library and dig out some more books that go into more depth.

I also reread The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Adler, which is about Harold and the Battle of Hastings. My recollection of it being pretty good, but not compelling was accurate - I found the first half more interesting than the second half, and Harold's flaws were pretty much glossed over while his heroics were expounded on (which makes sense, especially given the narrator). But that means it can go on the donation pile without much pang.

I've got My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell in my bag to read over lunch break, and I'm eyeing Words of Radiance (still/again) by Brandon Sanderson - there's a long weekend next weekend, so I've got half an idea of sitting down and reading a good chunk of it then.

Can you say, without spoilers ), if it has a similar feel to any of the earlier books or if it has an entirely new feel (I mean, they're all different, but, say...is it more like KoA or ACoK?)?

Stylistically, I think it's more like The Thief than the other three.

Can you say, without spoilers ), if it has a similar feel to any of the earlier books or if it has an entirely new feel (I mean, they're all different, but, say...is it more like KoA or ACoK?)?

Stylistically, I think it's more like The Thief than the other three.

*wiggles eyebrows* Does that mean it's written in first person? (You don't have to answer that. ) But thanks! That's good to know; maybe that'll help me pick it up faster...